Recently, as for mobile terminals such as cell phones, a wide variety of functions are incorporated in a compact terminal. Particularly, composition and transmission of an e-mail by use of a mobile terminal are widely carried out. When composing an e-mail by use of a mobile terminal, a user presses keys arranged on a terminal body or presses a touch panel to input characters and compose a text. In addition to composition of an e-mail, input of characters by use of a mobile terminal is very widely carried out in the case where the character information is inputted to an address book, a schedule book and the like, for example.
When a user inputs Japanese characters by use of operation keys of a cell phone, it is common to use a keyboard in which kana characters of each row are associated with each numeric key as shown in FIG. 12(a), for example. The following kana character input method of an e-mail is generally used today to input characters that compose an e-mail and the like by pressing such keys of a keyboard. That is, each row of kana characters from row “A” to “WA” is associated with each numeric key, such as row “A” consisting of “A”, “I”, “U”, “E” and “O” of kana characters is associated with the key “1”, row “KA” consisting of “KA”, “KI”, “KU”, “KE” and “KO” to the key “2 ” and row “SA” to the key “3” and the like. In this method, when successive press of each numeric key by the user are accepted, according to the number of presses, kana characters of the corresponding row are sequentially changed and one character is inputted.
In the case where an e-mail text is composed by using such kana input method, it is common to perform an input operation with displaying the result of the input on a screen of the terminal as shown in FIG. 12(b), for example, by use of a Japanese input application installed on the terminal In the screen shown in FIG. 12(b), an area which shows the progress of input of the characters currently being inputted by the user on a segment basis is displayed on the middle part thereof and on the upper part thereof, the confirmed part of the inputted characters is displayed.
FIG. 12(b) shows a state where the user presses the key “3 (row “SA”)” once among the keys on the keyboard shown in FIG. 12(a) to input “SA”, which is the first character of row “SA”, and then presses the key “2 (row “KA”)” three times successively to change kana characters of row “KA” sequentially such as from “KA” to “KI” to “KU”, thereby inputting “KU”, which is the third character of row “KA”. In response to the input of kana characters of “SAKU”, selection candidates of various words starting from “SAKU” are displayed on the lower part of the screen shown in FIG. 12(b). Thus the user can select a candidate from among them and confirm it. It is possible to occasionally convert the input kana characters into kanji (Chinese character) by repeating the input operation on a segment basis. In this manner, a text can be composed.
Incidentally, during such an input work, it's not always true that the user performs an input operation with watching a screen that displays the results of the input as shown in FIG. 12(b) all the time. In other words, for example, the user may turn his/her eyes away from the display screen in order to check the position of the key on the keyboard. Moreover, when the user performs an input operation with doing other things, for example, moving on foot or the like, it is not true that he/she can confirm the results of the input with watching the display screen all the time. Further, considering a faulty operation by the user using his/her finger, in the actual input operations, the need for performing an operation to correct inputting errors may arise constantly.
When the user makes an inputting error in the conventional input method, in order to correct it, the user moves a cursor to the portion to be corrected, then deletes the character of the portion to be corrected, for example, and inputs again a correct character.
For example, assume that the user inputs the kana characters of “KABUSHIKAKAISHA” by mistake as shown in the middle part of the display screen of FIG. 13(a) although he/she wants to input “KABUSHIKIKAISHA” (corporation), and after that he/she notices the inputting error. In this example shown in the figure, the cursor after input of a character or character string is in the shape of “I”. Further, when the cursor is moved onto the character that has already been inputted, the cursor turns into a square shape and indicates a selected position of the character by inversed display or blinking Therefore, when the user wants to correct the character that has already been inputted, in order to move the cursor to the position of “KA” (which locates right before the character string of “KAISHA”) the user wants to correct, he/she needs to press a LEFT arrow key of a cross key located on the upper part of the keyboard shown in FIG. 12(a) five times to put the display screen into the state as shown in FIG. 13(b). The numbers from (1) to (5) show the number of times the user presses the LEFT arrow key. As for the character input function of a cell phone, when a character is inputted in the middle of a sentence, in most cases the function is configured so that the input character is not “overwritten”, but is “inserted”. In such a case, the user moves the cursor to the portion which he/she wants to correct, deletes the character “KA” where the cursor is located by pressing a clear key such as a “C” key shown in FIG. 12(a), for example, and thereafter inputting a correct character “KI” as shown in FIG. 13(c) to carry out a correcting operation. Alternately, the user inputs a correct character and thereafter deleting the character he/she has inputted incorrectly.
On the other hand, in the English-speaking countries, in the case where characters are inputted by use of operation keys of a cell phone, it is common to use a keyboard in which alphabetical letters are associated with each numeric key as shown in FIG. 16(a). When a user inputs letters that compose an e-mail or the like by pressing such keys of the keyboard, the following alphabetical letter input method of an e-mail is generally used today. That is, alphabetical letters are associated with each numeric key such as, for example, “A”, “B” and “C” to the key “2” and “D”, “E” and “F” to the key “3”. In this method, when successive presses of each numeric key by the user are accepted, according to the number of presses, the corresponding alphabetical letters are changed sequentially and one letter is inputted. In this method, the alphabetical letters are changed sequentially from capital letters to small letters such as “A”, “B”, “C”, “a”, b”, “c”, in that order.
In the case where an e-mail text is composed by use of such input method of alphabetical letters, it is common to perform an input operation with displaying the results of the input on a screen of the terminal as shown in FIG. 16(b) by use of an English input application installed on the terminal.
FIG. 16(b) shows the state where the user presses the key “9” three times among the keys on the keyboard shown in FIG. 16(a) to input “Y”, which is the third letter, and then, presses the key “3” five times successively to change the alphabetical letters of “D”, “E”, “F”, “d”, “e” sequentially, thereby inputting “e”, which is the fifth letter. In response to the input of the letters of “Ye”, selection candidates of various words starting from “Ye” are displayed on the lower part of the screen shown in FIG. 16(b). Thus the user can select a candidate from among them and confirm it. It is possible to compose a text in English by repeating the input operation on a letter basis like this.
In this input method, for example, assume that the user inputs the letters of “Yepterday” by mistake as shown in the middle part of the display screen of FIG. 17(a) although he/she wants to input the letters of “Yesterday”, and after that he/she notices the inputting error. In the example shown in the figure, the cursor after the input of a letter or letter string is in the shape of “I”. Further, when the cursor is moved onto the letter that has already been inputted, the cursor turns into a square shape and indicate the selected position of the letter by inversed display or blinking Therefore, when the user wants to correct the letter that has already been inputted, in order to move the cursor to the position of “p” the user wants to correct, he/she needs to press a LEFT arrow key of a cross key located on the upper part of the keyboard shown in FIG. 16(a) seven times to put the display screen into the state as shown in FIG. 17(b). The numbers from (1) to (7) show the number of times the user presses the LEFT arrow key. As for the character input function of a cell phone, when a character is inputted in the middle of a sentence, in most cases the function is configured so that the input character is not “overwritten”, but is “inserted”. In such a case, the user moves the cursor to the portion where he/she wants to correct, deletes the character “p” where the cursor is located by pressing a clear key such as a “C” key shown in FIG. 16(a), for example, and thereafter inputting a correct character “s” as shown in FIG. 17(c) to carry out a correcting operation. Alternately, the user inputs a correct character and thereafter deleting the character he/she has inputted incorrectly.
However, as for the above described correcting operation, the longer the distance between the present cursor position and the position of the portion the user wants to correct becomes, the heavier the time-consuming tasks imposed on the user to carry out a key operation to move the cursor to the position of the portion the user wants to correct becomes.
As an apparatus that can deal with such a problem, there is an input apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 01-130260, for example. The input apparatus searches, when a user inputs a character that he/she wants to correct into a search field, the character or the character string inputted in the field from a text.